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Greatest Moment in Baseball
Right after the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Texas Rangers 10-9 in the 11th inning, many have touted it as the greatest game in baseball history (
. While collecting images of Bobby Thomson and David Freese with uniform #23, I came across an injured Kirk Gibson wearing #23 hitting the homer in the 9th as Dodgers beat the A's 5-4 in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series. These "greatest baseball moment" have been summarized below with video links.

[IMG]file:///C:%5CUsers%5CADMINI%7E1.SUE%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTe mp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_image009.jpg[/IMG]St. Louis (Thursday, October 27, 2011)— By the time David Freese stomped on home plate Game 6 had already been stamped among the greatest thrillers in baseball history. Twice down to their last strike, the St. Louis Cardinals somehow rallied. And when Freese completed a startling series of comebacks with a leadoff home run in the bottom of the 11th inning to beat Texas 10-9 on Thursday night, fans all over got ready to enjoy something they hadn't seen in a long time: Game 7 of the World Series. "You had to be here to believe it," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said. It was as great a game as the sport has ever witnessed, rivaling the Carlton Fisk homer in Game 6 of the 1975 Series and Bill Buckner's error in Game 6 of the 1986 Series. Freese saved St. Louis with a two-strike, two-out, two-run triple off Rangers closer Neftali Feliz that tied it in the ninth. In the 10th, after Josh Hamilton had homered to give Texas a two-run lead, Lance Berkman's two-strike, two-out single made it 9-all. To Freese, who grew up in the St. Louis area, it all reminded him of a game-ending home run Jim Edmonds hit in the 2004 playoffs. "Growing up or whatever, and you see stuff like that happen, those become memories," Freese said. Great, that is, except for Texas. The Rangers were that close to winning their first championship. (StLtoday; NY Times; ESPN; Cardinals History) (Photo: David Freese approaches home plate after hitting an 11th-inning home run to give the Cardinals a 10-9 victory in Game 6 of the World Series, sports.yahoo.com)

, wsj.com)

[IMG]file:///C:%5CUsers%5CADMINI%7E1.SUE%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTe mp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_image013.jpg[/IMG]Los Angeles (Saturday, October 15, 1988)— With injuries in both legs, Kirk Gibson hit a pinch-hit two-run homer off Oakland Athletics' Dennis Eckersley that won Game 1 of the 1988 World Series 5-4. Gibson's limp-off home run was the first time a team had been trailing in a World Series game and homered to win in the bottom of the ninth inning. It was also Gibson's only at-bat of the entire Series. But it was enough, as the Dodgers rode the moment all the way to a World Series championship 4-1. Vin Scully's call: "All year long, they looked to him to light the fire, and all year long, he answered the demands, until he was physically unable to start tonight— with two bad legs: The bad left hamstring, and the swollen right knee. And, with two out, you talk about a roll of the dice... this is it... High fly ball into right field, she i-i-i-is... gone!! In a year that has been so improbable... the impossible has happened!" Tom Lasorda: "I have seen many great home runs of great importance, but I have never seen anything like Kirk Gibson's home run in the first game of the 1988 Fall Classic. The drama that was attached to that home run was tremendous." (Video; Gibson's 1988 Homer; MLB) (Photo: Kirk Gibson #23, sportsillustrated.cnn.com)

In Ron Smith's Best by Number: Who wore what with distinction, (Sporting News Books, 2006, pp. 84-87), Michael Jordan was anointed the best athlete to have worn uniform #23— "Just close your eyes and visualize Chicago Bulls No. 23 with one arm extended, legs scissored and tongue wagging as he flies toward the basket, seemingly unafflected by gravity." With six NBA championships, ten NBA scoring titles, and highest scoring average (30.1 ppg), Jordan is "By acclamation, the greatest basketball player of all time". Although LeBron James was NBA's Most Valuable Player (2009-2010) and wore #23 with the Cleveland Cavaliers (2003-2010), he has yet won a NBA championship. (Photos: Michael Jordan #23, perfectpeople.net; LeBron James #23, nba-players.net)

[IMG]file:///C:%5CUsers%5CADMINI%7E1.SUE%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTe mp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_image019.jpg[/IMG]Eisenhower on D-Day & Number 23
I kept the Classic Peanuts comics of San Jose Mercury News (June 6, 2010 issue) because Charles Schulz had Snoppy (6-6-1998) among the paratroopers before D-Day. The Eisenhower photo with the 101st Airborne Division was taken at Greenham Common Airfield in England about 8:30 p.m. on June 5, 1944. Most of the men in this photo were killed or wounded in battle a few hours later. The tall man facing Ike, wearing the number 23 around his neck, is 1st Lieutenant Wallace C. Strobel. Ike asked where he was from. "Michigan, Sir." Ike brought up his thumb and said, "Go get 'em, Michigan." Strobel survived the night and subsequent week of fighting without injury. He died in 1999. The 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment jumped into Normandy with 792 men. After six days of desperate fighting, only 129 were still standing. Wallace said "Our plane number was 23 and I was the jumpmaster of that plane. This fact accounts for the sign around my neck in the picture which carries the number 23." (Photo: Eisenhower speaking to paratroopers on June 5, 1944, wikipedia.org)

23andMe.com Blimp over Memorial Church

On November 4, 2009, I took a photo of a blimp flying over Stanford Memorial Church. Later I learned that 23andMe is a privately held personal genomics and biotechnology company based in Mountain View, California. It is developing new methods and technologies that will enable consumers to understand their own genetic information. The company is named for the 23 pairs of chromosomes in a normal human cell. 23andMe was founded in April 2006 to empower individuals and develop new ways of accelerating research. Google has invested $3.9M and recently another $2.6M in 23andMe, whose co-founder Anne Wojcicki is married to Google co-founder Sergey Brin. (Photo: 23andMe Blimp over Memorial Church, WisdomPortal.com)

In Psalm 23 of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, King David describes God as his Shepherd. It is the most quoted passage in the Bible:"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
He leadeth me beside the still waters."
Psalm 23 portrays God as a shepherd, feeding (verse 1) and leading (verse 3) his flock. The "rod and staff" (verse 4) are also the implements of a shepherd. Some commentators see the shepherd imagery pervading the entire psalm. Psalm 23 is traditionally sung by Jews in Hebrew at the third Shabbat meal on Saturday afternoon. For Christians the image of God as a shepherd evokes connections not only with King David but with Jesus, described as "the Good Shepherd" in the Gospel of John. The phrase about "the valley of the shadow of death" is often taken as an allusion to the eternal life given by Jesus. Orthodox Christians typically include the Psalm in the prayers of preparation for receiving the Eucharist. In the 20th century, Psalm 23 became particularly associated with funeral liturgies in the English-speaking world, and films with funeral scenes often depict a graveside recitation of the psalm. (Photo: Psalm 23, wikipedia.org)

Concluding Thoughts on Number 23[IMG]file:///C:%5CUsers%5CADMINI%7E1.SUE%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTe mp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_image028.gif[/IMG]23 is a prime number. It is the lowest prime with consecutive numbers. Because Michael Jordan wore #23 in winning 6 NBA titles, and was acclaimed as the greatest basketball player of all time, LeBron James chose #23 when playing for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Atlanta Braves David Justice and British soccer playeer David Beckham also chose to wear #23. Number 23 showed up prominently around the paratrooper's neck when General Eisenhower spoke to him and the 101st Airborne Division on the eve of D-Day June 6, 1944. It's interesting that #23 won World War II, a Pennant, and two World Series in baseball. When I look a photo of 23andMe Blimp flying over Stanford Memorial Church (Nov. 4, 2009), I didn't realize it was connected to a genomics company, named for the 23 pairs of chromosomes in a human cell. With Christ shown prominently on Memorial Church, it reminded me of "Psalm 23" that "The Lord is my shepherd." (Photo: #23 on door, Richard Phillips, Numbers: Facts, Figures & Fiction, 1994)

After learning that "Psalm 23" is recited often at funerals, I didn't want to include this fact in this story of "Baseball's Greatest Moments" because the celebratory events showing the heros and teammates in jubilation. Then I realized that for every winner there is a loser. While the winners are popping champagne bottles in exhilaration, the losers are morose and funereal. David Freese was jubilant with the triple tying the game 7-7 in the 9th and homer to win the game 10-9 in the 11th. But Neftail Feliz who lost the 2-run lead and one strike from winning the Rangers' first World Series in 51 years was devasted. He didn't want to speak to anyone afterwards. Like Feliz with his head to the ground, Rangers manager Ron Washington had a similar pose walking off the field while the Cardinals celebrated.
Bobby Thomson is full of jubilation running around the bases after hitting the homer off Ralph Branca in the bottom of the 9th to win 5-4 and the 1951 NL Pennant. Russ Hodges' radio broadcast "The Giants Win The Pennant! The Giants Win The Pennant! The Giants Win The Pennant! The Giants Win The Pennant! Bobby Thomson hits into the lower deck of the left-field stands! The Giants win the pennant and they're goin' crazy, they're goin' crazy!" But for the loser Ralph Branca, his head was down in despair walking from the mound to the locker room. Carl Erskine watched his teammates coming in the clubhouse. "Jackie just slammed his glove hard into his locker. Hodges set his gently on the shelf, the way he always did. Dressen tore off his uniform shirt so violently that the buttons flew around the room. And then Ralph came in and sat on the steps leading to the training room, the big number 13 shining on his back. Finally, his head dropped to his chest and his arms fell forward between his knees. There was bedlam next door, but our place was like a tomb." Branca had dinner that night at Daube's Steak House in the Bronx with his fiancée, Ann, and the Rube Walkers. They were met by Ann's cousin Father Frank (Pat) Rowley, a priest at Fordham University. Branca recalls, "I said to Father Rowley, 'Pat, why me? Will you tell me, why me?' And Pat said, 'Ralph, God chose you because He knows your faith is strong enough to bear this cross.' That struck home. It was my salvation. I realized that I had done the best I could." Ralph married Ann a few weeks later, and would not only express no bitterness over the gopher ball, but begin a friendship with Thomson that lasted into each man's old age, including many joint television appearances as well as card and memorabilia shows (one where 300 showed up to get their autographs on a photo for $5 each). Branca parlayed his losing moment into a successful career selling insurance after retiring from baseball (1956). He would close deals by saying "Would you like to know how I felt throwing that Shot Heard 'Round the World homer to Bobby Thomson?" When his client said "Yes!" Branca responded "Then sign right here and I'll tell you" and made the sale.
Oakland A's manager Tony LaRussa felt miserable when Kirk Gibson hit that homer snatching victory for the Dodgers at the last moment on October 15, 1988. But as manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, his team won the World Series on October 27, 2011. Tony LaRussa said "You had to be here to believe it." That's what Tom Lasorda said when Gibson hit the homer to beat the Oakland Athletics. It's amazing that the time span for Tony LaRussa experiencing baseball Hell to Heaven is an unbelievable 23 years connected by homer heroes (Kirk Gibson and David Freese) both wearing uniform #23! (Photos: David Freese, hollywoodreporter.com; Neftail Feliz, espn.com; Kirk Gibson, espn.com; Dennis Eckersley, dailymotion.com; Thomson's homer, centerfieldgate.com; Shot Heard 'Round the World, sportsblink.com; Ralph Branca in despair, ralphbranca.com & in Branca's autobiography A Moment in Time (2011); Oakland A's losing 1988 World Series, dailymotion.com; Cardinals win 2011 World Series, yahoo.com)

Acknowledgment: I thank Jack Mullen for identifying the Oakland Athletics player as 2nd baseman Tony Phillips in the video clip with eyes of disbelief leaving the dugout after Dodgers' Kirk Gibson's homer off Dennis Eckersley beating the A's 5-4. This essay was completed 23 days after David Freese's 11th inning homer (October 27, 2011) touted as greatest baseball game ever.